Bicycle-saddle.



No. 672,656. Patented Apr. 23, 190|. P. W. TILLlNGHAST BICYCLE SADDLE.

i (Appmation filed Dec. 23, 1896.)

(No `mmm.)

IMA/infra?.

1' noms PETER: co.. muroumo.. wAsmNcn'on. o. c,

NITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

PARDON W. TILIJINGHAST, OF ORANSTON, RHODE ISLAND.

BICYCLE-SADDLE.'

SPECIFICATION forming* part 0f Letters Patent N0. 672,656, dated April 23, 1901.

Application filed December 23. 1896. Serial No. 616,725. (No model..`

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, PARDON W. 'FILLING- HAST, of Cranston, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented certain Improvements in Bicycle-Saddles, of which the following is a specification.

The saddles in general .use are now made by stretching a heart-shaped leather seat between a cantle, which forms the back of the saddle, and a device at the front or pommel, the cantle affording no support to the sides of the seat.

The object of my invention is to provide a saddle in which the seat is suspended in an open frame and in which the frame is expansible to tighten the seat and'adjustalole to retain it in its tightened condition.

To that end my invention consists, primarily, in an open adj ustably-expansive frame for a bicycle-saddle.

My invention further consists in the combination,with such an open expansible frame, of a seat portion suspended therein and so combined with the frame that the expansion of the frame will serve to tighten the seat.

My invention further consists in the combination, with an open eXpansible frame, of a seat portion suspended therein and means for expanding the frameto tighten the seat.

My invention further consists in the construction and arrangement of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure lis a plan of the frame. Fig. 2 shows how the lacing may be applied. Fig. 3 is a side View of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a section through Fig. 2, showing the nut attached to the supportingrods and provided with the screw for advancing the wedge. Fig. 5 is a topview of the nut and of the supporting-rods and a section of the wedge, together with the ends of the frame constituting the pommel. Fig. 6 is a section through line X X of Fig. 4. Figs. 7, 8, and 9 are details of the wedge and pom mel. Fig. 10 is a top view of the saddle, the seat being provided with cushions and covered with leather or other suitable material.

F is the frame, P the pommel, and L the lacing' or strands.

C is the nut, into which the ends of the supporting-rods R are inserted in sockets 7c and through which the screw S passes and enters a socket 1f in the wedge-block B. The forward end of the screw-rod, which occupies the socket t, is not threaded. The wedge W is shown with an upper and lower Flange fto hold the arms a of the pommel from slipping by or overriding each other. I prefer to depress the sides of the frame as theyapproach the pommel to accommodate the thighs of the rider, the pommel being in substantially the same plane with the rear portions of the frame, and also to make a slight inward curve at the same points for the same purpose.

I have shown asystem of lacing by which the strands radiate diagonally across the frame from three points or narrow spaces upon the same, one point being at the rear opposite to the pom mel, the other two being opposite to each other at the forward part of the frame near the pommel. If new we locate yielding points in the frame at. the rear on either side of the center, the effect of a separation of the arms of the poinmel will be to separate the points of attachment of most of the strands and tightens the same, particularly those which radiate from near the pommel. The forward and backward thrust of the screw also increases the distance between the forward and rear parts of the frame, stretching the strands that radiate from the rear to the forward parts of the frame. By this arrangement there are few short strands, and there is the least displacement between their points of attachment, while those strands which are subjected to the most use in riding are operated upon to a greater degree; but I find that by properly proportiouin g the strength of the strands to the lateral stiness of the frame good results can be attained also without providing special yieldingpoints. When the eX- panding force is applied by advancing the screw against the wedge, those parts of the frame connected by strands somewhat slackened will be the first to yield until the slack is taken up, and hence the spreading will take place over such portions of the frame as are least frmlybound together. This will berthe practical eect when the strands are arranged as hereinbefore described, and shown in the drawings. As a certain portion of the strands are more exposed to the weight of the rider IOO than Othersthe arrangement of strands can readily .be made such that the: slack WillV be taken up in the way last suggested.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A bicycle-*saddle 'consisting of a bent tween the ends of theframe forming the arms frame with separable ends provided with a seat, and means substantially as described for separatin g the ends of the frame to tighten the seat.

2. The combination With an open adjustably expansive frame, having free ends, ofa seat portion, eomposed of lacin'gs extending in different directions across the space surrounded by said frame, and means for separating the free ends of the'frame, .whereby the expansion of the frame by theseparation of said free ends will serve to tighten the lacings, substantially as described.

3. A bicycle-saddle consisting of a bent- 'frame Withunattached and separable ends,

laeings across same for a seat, the frame secured to a support, an ntand adj listing-screw carried by said support, and a wedge engaging with the adjusting-screw, and adapted to separate the ends of the saddle-frame by a forward movement of the adjusting-screw, substantially as set forth.

4. In a bicycle-saddle having a bent frame Withunattached and separable ends, a 3o flanged wedge or its equivalent `located beof the pommel, the ianges of said Wedge extending over and under the arms of the pommel and adapted to prevent an independent 35 vertical movement of the said ends of the frameand means for orcing the Wedge forward to cause a lateral separation oi' the ends of thev frame substantially as described.

5. In a bicycle-saddle the combination of the expansible frameF substantially conti-n nous in outline, the lacings L, the' pommel I), consisting of the separable endsv of the frame, the support R, the wedge W,-and the nut O,

provided with the sockets K, and the screw 45 S, all substantially as described.

PARDON W. TI'LLINGHAST. Witnesses:

THOMAS H. I-IoLToN, O. LAPHAM. 

